30-39.
λευκαί εἶσι “ πρὸς θερισμὸν ἤδη.
λαμβάνει, καὶ συνάγει καρπὸν εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον: ἵνα καὶ 6 σπείρων
ὁμοῦ χαίρῃ καὶ & θερίζων.
) ἀληθινὸς, ὅτι ἄλλος ἐστὶν 6 σπείρων, καὶ ἄλλος ὁ θερίζων.
36. Καὶ Ἀὁ θερίζων μισθὸν 6 Acts iii.
73%
Col.
11. 23. a « Ὦ Lk. x. 7. 37. ἐν γὰρ τούτῳ ὁ λόγος ἐστὶν ὁ x Cor. ix. . 182Tim 38. ἐγὼ ii. 6.
i Mic. vi. 15.
ἀπέστειλα ὑμᾶς θερίζειν "ὃ οὐχ ὑμεῖς κεκοπιάκατε" ἄλλοι KEKO-j xix. 35. 2
, κ ε ~ 3 κ. re > A > / » πιάκασι, καὶ ὑμεῖς eis τὸν κόπον αὐτῶν εἰσεληλύθατε. A 5 , Nii bates 3 μι a A τῆς πόλεως ἐκείνης πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτὸν τῶν Σαμαρειτῶν, aA 9 εἰ διὰ τὸν λόγον τῆς γυναικὸς μαρτυρούσης, -΄ Ὅτι εἶπέ µοι πάντα ὅσα yor της Υ
may have casually remarked that they were four months from harvest. In this case the time of year would be determined. Harvest beginning in April, it would now be December. But the phrase οὐχ ἡὑμεῖς λέγετε is not the natural introduction to a reference to some present remark of the disciples ; whereas it is the natural introduction to the citation of a proverb (Matt. xvi. 2). That it is a proverb is also favoured by the metrical form ἔτι τετράµηνόν ἐστι καὶ 6 θερισμὸς ἔρχεται. No trace of such a proverb has been found, but that some such saying should be current was inevitable, the waiting of the husband- man being typical of so mueh of human life. (Wetstein quotes from Ovid (Herovd., xvii. 263), ‘‘adhuc tua messis in herba est,” and many other parallels.) If this was a proverbial expression to give en- couragement to the sower, we cannot infer from its use here that the time was December. Our Lord quotes it for the sake of the contrast between the ordinary relation of harvest to seed-time, and that which they can recognise by lifting their eyes.—éwapare τοὺς ὀφθαλ- pols ὑμῶν. . .. Your harvest is already here. What the disciples see when they jift their eyes from their food is the crowd of Samaritans ripe for the kingdom and now approaching them, In Samaria a long time might have been expected to elapse between sowing and reaping; but nol—Aeveat εἶσι . . . the fields are already ripe for cutting. ᾖ[λευκαί Wetstein illustrates from Ovid, “‘ maturis albescit messis aristis”’.}—Ver. 36. καὶ 6 θερίζων . . . W.H. close ver. 35 with θερισµόν and begin 36 ἤδη 6 θερίζων. Already, and not after four months waiting, the harvester has his reward and gathers fruit to life eternal. The reaper has not to wait, but even now and in one and the same action finds his reward (cf. 1 Cor. ix. 17) and gathers the great product of this world which nourishes not merely through one winter till mext year’s crop is gathered but to
2 Chron. ix.
30. Ἐκ δὲ 5.
k ἐπί in Josh. Xxiv. 13.
life eternal.—iva 6 σπείρων ὁμοῦ χαίρῃ καὶ 6 θερίζων, ‘that sower and reaper may rejoice at one and the same time”. Here among the Samaritans this extra- ordinary spectacle was seen, Jesus the Sower and the disciples the reapers working almost simultaneously. So quickly had the crop sprung that the reapers trod on the heels of the Sower.— Ver. 37. ἐν yap τούτῳ. For in this, i.¢., in the circumstances explained in the following verse, namely, that I have sent you to reap what others sowed, is the saying verified, ‘“‘one soweth and another rg@apeth’’.—é λόγος, ‘the say- ing ο ος τσ Tim, ας, 8, x5; fete, — ἀληθινός without the article is the predi- cate and scarcely expresses that the saying receives in the present circum- stances its ideal fulfilment, rather that the saying is shown to be genuine; the saying is ἄλλος ἐστὶν ὁ σπείρων καὶ ἄλλος 6 θερίζων, various forms of which are given by Wetstein; as, ἄλλοι μὲν σπείρουσιν, ἄλλοι 8’ ad ἀμήσονται, ‘sic vos non yobis”’; cf. Job xxxi. 8; Micah vi. 15; Deut. vi. 11. [‘‘It was objected to Pompey that he came upon the victories of Lucullus and gathered those laurels which were due to the fortune and valour of another,’ Plutarch.]—Ver. 38. The exemplification in our Lord’s mind is given in ver. 38, where the pronouns ἐγώ and ὑμᾶς are emphatic. ‘I sent you to reap.” When? Holtzmann thinks the past tenses can only be ex- plained as spoken by the glorified Lord looking back on His call of the twelve as Apostles. That is, the words were not spoken as John relates. But may not the reference be to the baptising of many by the disciples in the preceding months ? This would be quite a natural and obvious reference. The work in Judaea which justifies the preterites was now alluded to, because now again the same division of labour is apparent. The Samaritans come not because of anything the dis- ciples had said while making purchases in the town, but because of their Master's